ONE SPECIAL NIGHT
US, 1999, 90 minutes, Colour.
Julie Andrews, James Garner, Patricia Charbonneau.
Directed by Roger Young.
One Special Night is a star vehicle for Julie Andrews and James Garner. It works very well as a portrait of relationships of ageing people. He is a builder in a snowbound town, visiting his wife with Alzheimer's in hospital with his two daughters. He is stranded there and gets a lift from a doctor who is visiting the institute in memory of her husband who died there a year earlier. She offers him a lift. They are stranded and the special night is the two of them interacting, getting to understand one another. When they are rescued, they plan to meet (in the style of An Affair to Remember). There are misunderstandings because that is the day that Garner's wife dies and Julie Andrews had turned up. When Garner's daughter is about to deliver her baby, Julie Andrews steps in and helps. There are revelations - and an acknowledgment of love and the possibility of building on the future.
Both stars give very sympathetic performances. There are some complications in the sub-plots about the two daughters and their relationships in family and to their father. Direction is by Roger Young, better known for action films and a number of the biblical telemovies including Joseph.
1. An entertaining television movie? For older audiences?
2. The star status of Julie Andrews and James Garner, their screen presence, their interactions, memories of their appearing together in the '60s and the '80s in The Americanization of Emily and Viktor Viktoria?
3. The credibility of the plot: the Thanksgiving Day setting, the snow? The accident, being stranded? The reliability of each of the characters? Their abrasiveness, their meeting of minds and hearts? The reticent behaviour? The consequences after the meeting? The family with the mother with Alzheimer's? The widow remembering her older husband and having her career? The story of the two daughters?
4. The portrait of Robert and his family, going to see Beth in the institution, her not recognising her family? The pathos of the memories of the marriage? The two daughters going, Jacqueline coming from the city and avoiding the family issues? Laurie and her being on the spot, caring for her father, visiting her mother every day? Her boy and his having to cope with his grandmother's illness? Her husband and his having moved out? The visit, the preparation for Thanksgiving Dinner?
5. Robert, abrasive, chauvinist, genial? Wanting the lift, going with Catherine? Driving, the accident, walking, the tractor, finding the house? Their speculation about who owned it? Settling in, food, talking, understanding, revelation? The feeling between them? Being rescued? Catherine and her visiting the institution, sitting in her husband's room?
6. The rescue, Jacqueline and her story, leaving home, work in the city, the haphazard life, returning home, the impact of seeing her mother, the family drama?
7. Laurie and her story, the marriage, her husband and his helping out, the revelation of his having an affair, her knowing it, his apologies, breaking it off? The possibility of her forgiving him? At the birth of his baby, her forgiveness? Her joy in having her child? Her love for her son? Her relationship with her father, her strong words with her sister?
8. The death of their mother, Robert not coming to the restaurant to meet Katherine? Her turning up?
9. Time passing, Katherine saying she didn't go, Robert saying that he did? The effect on their relationships? Katherine going again to the institution, the room being occupied? Her realisation that what Robert said was true, her isolated life, seeming lack of feelings? The experience with Robert and the effect on her?
10. The birth of the child, her helping? Finding out about the death of their mother? The apology to Robert? His taking her to the house, his buying it, a home for the two of them? A future together?
